ACEG Applauds Rep. Kathy Castor’s Bill to Expand Access to Clean Energy & Reduce Grid Congestion

Washington, D.C. (June 22, 2021) — On Tuesday, June 22, 2021 Representative Kathy Castor (D-FL) introduced the Efficient Interconnection Act of 2021. The bill seeks to eliminate transmission interconnection queue congestion, allowing more clean energy to connect to the grid and providing families across the country access to more affordable energy.
“This bill addresses a key barrier keeping new resources off the grid—the full assignment of shared network costs to individual generators,” said Rob Gramlich, Executive Director, Americans for a Clean Energy Grid. “Homeowners should pay for driveways, not the whole road into town or the highway lane expansion. This bill bans the most egregious form of that type of cost allocation with respect to electric transmission.”
The Efficient Grid Interconnection Act would:

• Direct the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to equitably allocate network upgrade costs among all beneficiaries.
• Direct FERC to require grid operators to study deploying grid-enhancing technologies to defray the costs of traditional transmission upgrades, saving everyone time and money.

The full text of the bill is available here.